Water-carved rocks high on a Martian mountain have revealed that Nasa's Curiosity rover could actually be driving through a giant dried up lake bed.

The new finding comes from Gale Crater, where NASA's Curiosity rover landed in 2012.

The reveal a series of gridlike rock formations known as boxwork on Mount Sharp—an 18,000-foot (5,486-meter) mound in the middle of Gale Crater.

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The signs of a giant lake: The boxwork structures on Mount Sharp are shown in red (upper left inset map, Gale Crater). Lower right inset shows detail of boxwork formation (scale bar represents 50¿meters). Gale crater is 155¿km in diameter for scale.

Researchers believe the telltale patterns could only have been made by water - meaning the mountain was once surrounded by a giant lake.

'Detailed mapping of the filled fracture network on Mount Sharp indicates that this sedimentary layer most likely represents large-scale boxwork fabricsm' they say in the journal Journal of Geological Research: Planets.

'These deposits provide evidence for extensive and relatively rapid cement formation, which could be beneficial to the preservation of organic compounds, 1050 m above the current floor of Gale Crater.'

By studying images of the surface, the team were even able to estimate how big the giant lake was.

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'Volumes of diagenetic cements can be measured from orbital imagery, and based on these measurements and an assumed chemistry, the minimum volume of water required to form the cements measured was calculated to be about 0.4 km3.'

Spread around Mount Sharp, that would translate to roughly the amount of water in Boston Harbor.

The researchers say they have the perfect opportunity to study the area, thanks to the Curiosity rover, and say it could still hold organic compounds from the ancient lake.

The possible ancient configurations of Mount Sharp that would allow sufficient groundwater flow to form the boxwork structures spotted

'The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover is capable of driving to the boxwork layer from its landing site on the floor of Gale Crater and investigating the chemical composition and textures of these deposits from the surface.

'This site is a possible target for investigation by Curiosity as a location where a series of postdepositional water-based processes are interpreted that left extensive exposed diagenetic cements, which are indicative of possibly favorable conditions for preservation of organic compounds.'